BW OU Liberation Transmission

Hello again. I'm here to post one of the more successful OU teams I have built lately. It's a sand balance team based around the infamous dog (Stoutland) and was built for the 9th instalment of the Official Smogon Tournament. While it didn't win in the tournament when it was most necessary (I was unfortunate but w/e), it went 2-1 in it, which is ok I guess considering I didn't get to use it long, it got me suspect reqs for the Keldeo and Tornadus-T test, and most recently, won Secret Santa 7 in the hands of Lavos Spawn. Sometimes I use Choice Scarf Tyranitar and Volt Switch Zapdos, but this is the build I like the most. So without any further ado, here's the team.

First off, my sand summoner of choice: Tyranitar. Tyranitar provides the valuable sand dog needs to excel. I chose Tyranitar over Hippowdon because Tyranitar checks Psychic-types such as Latias, Latios and Reuniclus, all of which could give me trouble with the right set. I opted for a Choice Band set to punch holes into opposing teams, paving the way for dog. I don't think the moveset really needs much of an explanation really. Stone Edge and Crunch are my main STAB moves, doing to a lot of damage to anything unresisted. Superpower scores super-effective hits on Ferrothorn and Heatran, and gets neutral hits on Breloom and Keldeo. Pursuit catches Ghost-type Pokémon on the switch, allowing me to use Return more freely with dog.

The EV spread is fairly straightforward, but I run 100 Speed EVs (recently changed from 96) to outrun 24 Speed Skarmory.

Starmie assumes the role of the spinner of the team. With its typing, I have a solid Water resist, which is vital to stopping Keldeo. Scald is useful to spread burns around, Psyshock disposes of Toxicroak, Tentacruel, Gengar and Breloom. It also lets me bypass any Calm Mind boosts Keldeo might get under its belt. Recover increases Starmie's longevity which is very helpful in checking Keldeo and Terrakion. Finally, Rapid Spin rids me of any hazards on my side of the field, which helps Stoutland and Tyranitar wreak havoc for longer. In addition, Rapid Spin gets rid of Stealth Rock for Zapdos, giving it an easier time to checking Tornadus(-T), Sheer Force Landorus-I and Venusaur.

Max HP on Starmie is obvious. 216 Speed with a Timid nature outspeeds Gengar; I didn't want to outspeed Tornadus-I because I didn't feel it necessary at the time with Tornadus-T in the tier. The rest is dumped into Defense for a little bit more bulk on the physical side.

Ferrothorn serves several purposes for this team. First, it provides a much wanted Dragon resist for the team by virtue of its Steel-typing. Secondly, its auspicious typing gives me a solid Water resist, helping me combat Rain, especially Politoed, Gyarados and Starmie, and making my life easier against Rotom-W. Ferrothorn also wears down opposing teams with Spikes and Leech Seed, giving dog an easier time. Thunder Wave slows down threats so Tyranitar can do its job of breaking down the other team better. Ferrothorn synergises well with Starmie: they resist each other's weaknesses except for Bug, Ferrothorn lays hazards and Starmie keeps them off.

The EV spread is standard fare. I chose a Sassy nature to take the Special Water-type attacks better.

Next up: Landorus-T. I picked Landorus-T to be my Stealth Rocker, and first Terrakion check, which it does well thanks to its typing, bulk and Intimidate, forcing many switches. Landorus-T also gives me a bit of offensive presence outside of Tyranitar and Stoutland. With no investment, Landorus-T still boasts 327 Attack, which is more than enough. Earthquake is a solid STAB, Stone Edge gives me EdgeQuake coverage, and is useful for hitting Flying-type Pokémon. Finally, U-Turn gives me momentum and can punish Pokémon that switch into hazards, essentially making them switch straight back out the next turn.

I kept the 200 HP EVs from the set on-site, but I run 96 Speed to outspeed 20 Speed Tentacruel. The rest is then dumped into Defense which, in conjunction with an Impish nature and Intimidate, gives it a lot of bulk on the physical side.

bird. I picked Zapdos because at the time I built the team, Tornadus-T was still roaming around, so I wanted a solid answer to it. Turns out it does OK against other stuff like Scizor, Landorus-I (provided I don't bring it in on SR + HP Ice) and Venusaur. Thunderbolt, Hidden Power [Ice] and Roost were pretty much given, but I chose Heat Wave over Toxic, Roar or even Substitute for Ferrothorn, who would otherwise be problematic. Also, actually doing damage to Venusaur is nice since Hidden Power doesn't do a whole lot.

248 HP EVs let Zapdos switch into Stealth Rock four times. 36 Speed outspeeds Jolly Tyranitar (useful I know), and the Special Defense investment lets Zapdos do its job of checking the threats its meant to check.

dog. The one this team was built for. With the sand, dog becomes a very potent revenge killer, reaching nearly 520 Speed, and a nice 492 Attack stat, letting me check several threats such as Salamence and Volcarona. Unlike xtrashine, I run Return for a full-powered STAB, which I can normally spam freely with the help of Tyranitar taking care of Ghosts. For this reason, I use Crunch over Pursuit. Crunch does good damage to Ghost- and Psychic- types and OHKOs a Gengar that decides to stay in. Superpower takes care of Steel-types and Terrakion, and Wild Charge hits Skarmory and Gyarados.

There you have it, that's the team. I don't really have much to say for the conclusion, so I'll give shoutouts to my fellow #beastaroonis, and especially Lavos who won Secret Santa with this, and to the Circus Maximus Tigers who wreck. Honorable mention goes to harsha who is a dick and deletes my posts. ): Thanks for reading, and don't hesitate to rate/hate/steal/luvdisc, I can also give a team building process later if people want.

You've done a nice job here; the team is very solid and I really can't find any notable big weaknesses that you need to fix. You have a minute weakness to Agility / Double Dance Thundurus-T, as it can use Fighting / Electric / Ice coverage to KO most of your team. TTar and Dog are OHKO'd by LO FBlast, Starmie is OHKO'd by Tbolt, and Lando, HPIce. After some residual damage, Ferro is OHKO'd as well, and Zapdos is 2HKO'd. Double Dance Thundurus is a bit less threatening; since it needs both an NP and an Agility to sweep (LO 252 Tbolt does 58-68% to your TTar, and it needs +2 Spe to outspeed Dog) Against Double Dance, you can use Ferrothorn, but you can' really do much since Thundy heals from Twave and Power Whip does very little. You can attempt to stall it with Leech Seed, however, as Leech Seed turns +2 HP Ice into a 3HKO.

To solve this small problem, I suggest you give Ferrothorn Gyro Ball over Thunder Wave. Gyro Ball does ~30% to Thundy-T, letting you use Zapdos and Ferro to eradicate Thundy-T if SR is up. Gyro Ball also helps against DDancers, who aren't that big of a threat, but with Fire Coverage can be dangerous nonetheless. I don't really think TWave looks all that useful for your team; your main problems reside in beating physical walls (which TWave doesn't really help against) and beating things faster than Dog- of which Gyro can be used to kill.

Other than that, there really is nothing else I can see. If Volc is a problem, you can use Dog / Lando to kill. Getting SR up is pretty essential for your team, so it'd probably be a good idea to be aware of that when battling.

Good luck! It's a small touchup for a small threat, but I still hope it helps!

Hi this is a really nice team, I have one with a few differences that works great. Keldeo is a pretty big threat as starmie is a shaky check at best. with hazards and rain hydro pump will KO cleanly. At +1 with rocks I think it will sweep you outside of tyranitar activating sand rush. Agility thundurus is also a huge threat if zapdos gets weakened. Lastly alakazam is a nightmare, but that is every team that doesn't have a scizor or jirachi. To fix your weaknesses I would try a calm mind latias or life orb latias over zapdos. With tornadus gone I don't know what zapdos' niche is, and latias can be a great keldeo switch in, take on breloom just as well, and take on agility thundurus somewhat better. A specially defensive spread could be used with recover/thunder wave/dragon pulse/hidden power fire or whatnot, but CM or LO should be enough. If you run CM I would definitely use hidden power fire and 244 speed for keldeo and virizion. The HP/Defense/SpA split depends on your preferences. Latios could also work, but latias is much more reliable to be around for a lonf time. Good luck.

Hi there, really cool team, i love Zappo, even if i often prefer Sub+Roost version to stall better the oppo, the 3attacker is a great alternative thanks his expanded coverage that make it more dangerous. The team in general seems pretty good, but i ve some advice to give you, especially for a serious weakness, so let s start with the rate!

In a metagame that is full of Fight spam, you have 3 resistors, Zappo, Lando-t (helped by his trait) and Starmie, but these 3 pokemon and your team accordingly have a big trouble, his name is Toxicroak. Toxicroak can without any problem Setup on Ferrothorn, Zapdos and especially on Tyranitar (that has no way to hit him decently although has Choice Band set) and destroy all your team since is pretty slow (him outspeeds 4/6 and has access to Sucker Punch, that s one of the best Priority moves) without finding any resistance, only Stoutlant could be not Hokoed by him, but only if you have not Entry Hazard in your field. Here some calc.

As you can see, Toxicroak give you much problems even if doesn t boost, has even the possibility to Hoko Zapdos without SD up (Stealth Rock+ Sand Damage), and Ferrothorn has not the certainty to use an eventual Thunder Wave to stop eventually after with Landorus. So My suggestion is to use a different Evs spread on Landorus-T. Originally i wanted to replace Skarmory in place of Ferrothorn, same work, similar utility, but Skarmory is only a check and you have in your home the answer for that threat. I suggest you to run with one of 200HP/102Def/208Spd Impish Nature; this Evs spread allows you to outspeed Adamant Toxicroak and give you the possibility to Hoko him thanks his Stab Earthquake.

Last thing, you should give Gyro Ball instead of Power Whip and Protect over Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn, the reason is simple, Gyroball help you to don't give setup to pokemon such as CMLatias that in this way could give nuisance to Tyranitar and hit harder Dragon Pokemon in general while Protect is pretty useful to scout the move to an eventual choicer, in this case Bandkion, that with the loss of some investiment on the Def of Landorus-T could be dangerous, in this way you always have the more safe switch in, especially useful in this kind of team.

As you can see, you have not more to change, only some fix, hope i heped and gl with the team.

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Last thing, you should give Gyro Ball instead of Power Whip and Protect over Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn,

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I disagree. He really needs power whip to be able to beat Rotom-W, who can give no end of trouble on his team. I guess protect can be used, but if you only run GBall you can be PPStalled by opponents with recovery options like SubCM Lati@s.

There isn't much to rate as this is a very solid team. I don't particularly agree with the Latias suggestion since that opens you up too much to opposing Scizor which would 6-0 you otherwise. As previously mentioned, Toxicroak is a pretty major threat to your team. It can outspeed Landorus-T and nail it with a timely Ice Punch while bypass Stoutland's huge speed and Sucker Punch'ing it to death. Dragonite also looks pretty annoying, especially the Choice Band'd varient, since it can 2HKO Landorus-T on the switch and Magnezone is a common partner in DragMag teams to trap Ferrothorn. Due to this, I recommend an EV spread of 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 Spe and a Jolly Nature on Landorus-T. This gives you 270 Speed which allows you to outspeed all varients of Toxicroak and Adamant Dragonite and allows you to OHKO the former with no prior damage and the latter after Stealth Rock. Even with this change, if Dragonite gets a Dragon Dance after Stealth Rock and Landorus-T is weakened you're not going to have fun. This could be a common scenario if you're against an offensive team with several Dragons or several Physical threats. Simply using Ice Fang on Stoutland instead of Crunch would help. Ice Fang can OHKO Dragonite after one turn of Sand Damage and Return cannot. Crunch is really not even needed switch you have Tyranitar to trap Ghost and Psychic mons anyways. Lastly, now that Tornadus-T is banned, I would move 8 EV's from Def and add themto Spe on Starmie to outspeed Tornadus. Good luck.

A lot of people have already given really good suggestions but since I promised I will do my best to add to them ;o. Ok so like others have said Toxicroak is a pretty deadly threat, but so is Ice Punch Lucario who much like Toxicroack can 6-0 with some prior damage. Like others I would suggest a change in Landorus-T's spread, but to 280 speed not to 270. These extra 10 points help vs Lucario and helps to stop it from sweeping you clean. The spread I suggest is pretty much Bri's, but with extra speed (252 HP / 108 Def / 148 Spd is exact spread), this pretty much maximizes your physical bulk while giving you the necessary speed. Also like BKC you seem to have the weird tendency to always let your Starmie's be out sped by Tornadus which I find weird. Sure you have Zapdos but those 8 EVs can be game changing if Zapdos gets an unlucky fuse or crit. So I would definitely move 8 EVs to speed since the change in bulk is fairly negligible. Like others have said it seems like you would really appreciate Gyro Ball > Thunder Wave on Ferrothorn, as you don't want to give DD Dragons with lum too easy of a time. It can be risky relying so much on Stoutland to revenge (especially if they have a weather starter of their own) and since your team is based around a Stoutland sweep the lack of Paralysis shouldn't hamper your goal too much. My final suggestion is more of a personal preference, but I would suggest running Volt Switch > Thunderbolt on Zapdos. This helps give your team a lot more momentum and creates a tiny VoltTurn chain helping to get Stoutland in easier. Anyways cool team bud and gl.

This is a really nice balanced sand team, but I honestly don't know how you play againts SD Lucario/SD Toxicroak if they have Ice Punch. Lucario seems like a pain in the ass for you to handle is it basically 6-0s you with rocks on the field and if Starmie has taken previous damage. Even if you predict the CC, Zapdos/Landorus-T are going to switch right away if you fear Ice Punch. I don't know how to fix this problem, maybe switching Max/Max+ Skarmory over Ferrothorn to give you a better handling of those threats, but then you'll lose a Rain Check, so it basically goes the same.
You could use a Choice Scarf Tyranitar with Earthquake, Crunch, Stone Edge and Superpower to troll them and OHKO both of them with the proper move. Earthquake has redundant coverage with Superpower, but Earthquake guaranteeds the KO and Toxicroak and Superpower the KO on Lucario.

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A faster Landorus-T would be helpful in dealing with Lucario/CB Dragonite/Toxicroak; I'd use 248 HP / 108 Def / 152 Spe as the EV spread, as it lets you outrun everything I've just mentioned while taking less from residual damage (sr leech seed etc).

Thunder Wave on Ferro isn't doing much. Gyro Ball would be a good choice to hit Dragons locked into Outrage. Protect is also a nice option to rack up recovery & residual damage.

Agreeing that 8 extra Speed EVs on Starmie will save you against a Tornadus-I some day.

Just go max/max on bird, you don't need to outrun Jolly Tyranitar, he got left behind in DPP. You could also try out Volt Switch, Toxic or Roar.

Dog can use 216 Speed EVs to outrun everything he needs to while investing a bit more in his bulk to protect him from weaker attacks and/or priority.

Hey man, I like your team a lot and I don't think there's much you could improve, however, there are a few small nitpicks I'd like to suggest:
First of all try Fire Fang / Retaliate over Crunch on Stoutland. You don't have to worry about Ghosts / Psychics, because Tyranitar eliminates them before they could trouble Stoutland. While Fire Fang is an option to hit the likes of Forretress much harder, Retaliate has amazing power after your opponent killed something and can sometimes be a last resort against set-up sweepers.
Another suggestion is giving your Tyranitar a bulkier split. It doesn't really need those 252 Atk EVs to do his job, so moving 64 or 88 EVs in Sp.Def. gives you an easier time dealing with Reuniclus or the Latis while you don't lose much power (I'll edit some calcs later, don't have a calculator atm).
Lastly, I'd move those Speed EVs into Sp.Def if they're only for Tyranitars, 'cause you can't do anything to it anyway.

From experience I know subKyurem is a big threat to this team. It can set up a sub on 4/6 members on your team and can hit every member while only Tyranitar, Stoutland (in sand) can outspeed and break its sub and they still have to take a Ice Beam / Earth Power. Starmie can break its sub but Kyurem can just PP stall with pressure and Roost. Therefore I'm going to suggest Gyro Ball > Thunder Wave like many others. This still isn't a 100% solution since Gyro Ball has low pp, but you can atleast threaten it out twice and OHKO it if people think they can just Roost on a Gyro Ball. I also want to second Brii's suggestion on running Ice Fang on Stoutland over Crunch since your team does like threatened by dd dragons. Also, if you decide to run more speed on Landorus-T, you might want to run 168 evs with Jolly instead of 112. This way you can surprise Kyurems who think they can Ice Beam you / substitute on Lando-t by outspeeding (285 speed Kyurem) and OHKOing them. Consider that ev spread if you want another way of dealing with Kyurem.

I can see Weavile being a serious threat to this team.
He can 2HKO anything (including Ferothorn if it's just a little bit weakened) with the right move, and even if you can deal with it with smart switches, it can dig holes in the team.
Stoutland can revenge kill, but won't switch in because Low kick would hurt. Weavile seems to be another reason to use Gyroball for a sure OhKo I guess, don't see other way to deal with it without breaking your balance.

Hi ficcion, i dont know if someone already suggested you this but i think that you should try a different spread for Stoutland. EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spd with a Jolly Nature
let you outspeed and kill 2 very common scarf users, such as Terrakion and Keldeo, (and, why not, latios) which, while are not a problem for this team because you can already handle them, can stop your stoutland sweep.
In addiction, you can always outspeed +2 dragonite and you dont have to tie with adamant mamoswine even without the sand.
Other than this, good job!

I like this team. A lot. It has almost the same defensive core of my current team with Starmie/Land-T/Ferrothorn. I like the Gyro Ball idea over Thunder Wave, especially because you have a quick revenge-killer in Dog. Gyro lets Ferro dish out damage, obviously. One consideration for ya though is the EV spread on said Ferrothorn. Since Haxorus got Superpower, the EV spread in the analysis is kind of obsolete since it was designed to avoid EQ's 2HKO. One that was brought up in Ferro's OU thread by Lacerta (with a slight modification) is 248 HP / 24 Def / 236 SpD Relaxed. That spread allows you to almost always avoid a 2HKO from Specs Keldeo's Hydro Pump in the rain (it's only a 0.39% chance to 2HKO without SR). It also allows you to at least take a Secret Sword and live from perfect health, since it deals 83.76 - 99.14%, in case a major mispredict happens. 248 HP minimizes residual/Spikes damage if they happen to be up when Ferro comes in.